April 17, 1984

The Canada Health Act (CHA) was introduced in 1983 in response to the report of Justice Emmett Hall, which stated that “extra-billing by doctors and user fees levied by hospitals were creating a two-tiered system that threatened” the accessibility of Canada’s world class healthcare services. The CHA is framed by five principles: (1) public administration, (2) accessibility, (3) universality, (4) comprehensiveness, and (5) portability. The CHA consolidated earlier national healthcare legislation, namely the Hospital Insurance and Diagnostic Services Act (1957) and the Medical Care Act (1968) and created conditions that provinces and territories had to meet in their provision of healthcare in order to receive the federal healthcare payments, called the Canadian Health and Social Transfer.